Stop! Don’t microwave one more frozen pancake! You can make Silver Dollar Hots from scratch and have them on the table for a tasty, delicious preservative-free breakfast in just under 20 minutes.
Adults love these Silver Dollar Hots because they are fluffy, tender and indulgent but don’t weigh you down. Children love them because they are fun to dress and play with on the plate. After all, they truly are the perfect child-size pancake.
The best part? These mini pancakes are meant to be served hot from the griddle right onto your plate and eaten immediately. Everyone wins!
The sour cream in the batter is the key to this delicate treat, but they cook quickly and burn easily. We recommend a medium-low setting on your burner or griddle and flip as soon as you hear them sizzle, just as bubbles are forming. They just take a few minutes to whip up and you likely have all these ingredients in the pantry so they’re a really fun pancake to make when you want to serve a hot sweet breakfast in a hurry and want a lighter alternative to the traditional heavy pancake.
The name comes from their size, and at 2 /12” diameter Silver Dollar Hots really are about the size of a U.S. silver dollar – several generations of younger Americans have never seen one of these and it might make a fun teachable moment with children to compare a real silver (now they’re all silver alloy) dollar to the pancake sizing.
The original silver dollar pancake has Scottish origins and was originally served for dessert – after dinner. These pancakes originated as early as the 1800s and were adopted in England and renamed flapjacks. Americans love flapjacks (we call them crepes) but the fluffy style we know and love today is an American original.
One of the ways we love to modernize traditional recipes is to make them easier to prepare or swap out ingredients that better fit our modern diets and tastes. But this traditional recipe is amazing, so with Silver Dollar Hots we’ve tried to keep it as true to the original as possible. We’ve modified the original recipe from Joy of Cooking to use self-rising flour, which eliminates the need for baking soda, and reduced the salt by half. You can also swap out Greek yogurt or a light version of sour cream. They taste just as good, but small changes like this can make a difference over time in your diet.
We serve these pancakes with fruit, specifically berries, because they are excellent starters to feed your organs in the morning. The small size of these pancakes and the tang of the sour cream pairs well with a tart-yet-sweet berry like blueberry, blackberry or raspberry. We recommend only pure maple syrup with these pancakes as those sugary corn syrups mask the delicate flavors and weigh down what’s meant to be a light and flavorful meal.
Our favorite part about Silver Dollar Hots? You can eat 5-10 of these and feel like you’re indulging but not overeating. There’s only ¼ cup of flour in the entire recipe. Now that’s a win for pancake lovers worldwide!
Silver Dollar Hots
Adapted from the Joy of Cooking cookbook
Prep time: 5 mins.
Cook time: 10 mins.
Total time: 15 mins.
Makes 40 pancakes, about 2 ½” diameter each
Serves 2 – 4
Substitutions: The original recipe calls for sour cream. We like this ingredient but you are welcome to use Greek yogurt or even a light sour cream. It also calls for AP flour plus baking soda. We’ve chosen to use self-rising flour which eliminates the need for baking soda. We also reduced the salt by half or you can eliminate it completely.
Ingredients:
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 C sour cream
¼ C self-rising flour
1 ½ T sugar
¼ tsp salt
Complements:
Butter for the griddle
Maple Syrup
Berries, for serving
Lightly beat the eggs, then whisk in the other ingredients. Heat your frying pan or griddle on medium low. Add a pat of butter to the pan or griddle. Using a tablespoon (we used a 1 T coffee scoop), ladle 1 T batter onto the surface at a time for each pancake.
You should be able to create a round pancake fairly easily by pouring each tablespoon of batter straight down on the griddle or pan and allowing the batter to spread out from the center like a ripple on the water. Cook until little bubbles begin to appear on top. Flip immediately and cook for about 30 seconds on the other side.
As we mentioned above, these cook quickly and burn easily, so if the edges burn, turn the heat down a bit and try again on the next batch. We promise they will all get eaten no matter the size or shape.
Enjoy your Silver Dollar Hots with a good cup of coffee, orange juice, berries, a slosh of maple syrup and lots of laughter around the table. And it's the perfect time to let the kids play with their food.